Fairytale Ending
by leighann415
Summary: David finds a note from Niles to Daphne written the night he was born & wants to know more about his parents' love story.  Post-series.  Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: **After months of having this story on the back burner, I finally have it up! Thanks to Kristen (Kristen3) for all the poking & encouragement for me to get this finished. And for editing it too! Thanks to Sydney (Sydney3) for reading an early draft of this. And I couldn't post a story without thanking Andrea (iloveromance), Andress (Andress Jade), and Melinda (SamandDianefan10) for their amazing friendship & encouragement as well. You guys rock! Please R&R! Hope you like the story! And usual disclaimer goes, I don't own the characters or am affiliated with anything related to _Frasier_ in any way.

_Dearest Daphne,_

_I have never been prouder of you! Our little boy is finally here. He is perfect, just like his mother. I'm sorry I fainted when you needed me. But when I came to, and saw you with our little David…It just took my breath away. Our fears about him having one or the other of our families' genes seem nonsensical now. I know we will raise him to be a good, strong man. We Crane men aren't perfect, but maybe little David will turn out ok. I know his grandpa will spoil him rotten, just like he said…His Grandma Ronee will too, I'm sure, when she gets used to the idea of being a grandmother. Well, you're asleep now, but David is stirring. I will be as quiet as I can so I won't wake you. I love you always. You'll never know how much…_

_Yours,_

_Niles_

David Crane looked at the note from his father to his mother. He found it in an old photo album. Funny, he'd looked at this album many times, but he never noticed this note way in the back. He didn't know the story of how his parents fell in love, but he was sure there was a good story behind it.

When he put the album away, he went to find his mother. She was in the kitchen, making them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. She smiled when he entered.

"Hi David, are you ready for lunch?"

David looked back at his mother and smiled. "Sure am. Can we eat in the living room?"

"I guess so. You know how your father fusses at that, but he's not here." Daphne carried their sandwiches into the living room. They sat on the fainting couch, using the coffee table to hold their plates.

"Did you put the photo album away?"

"Yes, mom. I found something in there that made me curious." David said, in between bites of his sandwich.

"Really? Haven't you looked at our pictures plenty of times before?" Daphne couldn't imagine what he might've found.

"Yeah, but I found a note tucked in the back that I never saw before. From Dad to you when I was born."

Daphne suddenly remembered the note. She hasn't read that in years, ever since Niles first wrote it. "Why did that make you curious, David?"

"I was just wondering about the story behind it. You know, about how I was born, and how you and Dad first fell in love and stuff."

Daphne stopped mid-bite. She wasn't ready to tell her son that story yet. She would've preferred he be a little older than seven when he asked. She would have to talk to Niles first.

"Why don't you wait until your father gets home?"

David was a little disappointed at the answer he got, and he started counting the hours until his dad came home.

Daphne was distracted after David's question. She didn't mind telling David the details of how she and Niles came together. It was just that some parts of the story weren't really appropriate for a 7-year-old boy. Like how demanding Maris and Mel were, and Niles' subsequent divorces from them. Sometimes she was still amazed at how they managed to get together after all that they went through with Maris and Mel, and Donny. She still thought of Donny once in a while, whether he was as happy in love with someone as she was with Daphne never regretted professing her love for Niles, she _did _regret breaking Donny's heart. He would've made her happy, she knew, but she could never have been with him and had the same kind of relationship she now had with Niles. Niles was her true love, and always had been. But she wasn't sure if she could tell all of this to David now. She needed to talk to Niles about it first.

As Daphne was lost in thoughts of the past, she heard a key enter the lock. She smiled when she saw Niles enter the apartment. She was never really herself until she had him in her presence…They came together and kissed.

"How was your day?" Daphne asked.

"Oh, the usual. Seeing patients, and counting the hours until I could be with you and David." Niles said as he set his briefcase down on the couch.

Daphne's heart swelled Niles' comment. He really did love being around her and David. How she managed to marry a man like Niles Crane was beyond her imagination.

"What about you? How's our boy today?" Niles said, looking around for him.

"Oh, he's fine. He's playing at the moment. But, Niles, I wanted to talk to you about something first."


	2. Chapter 2

While David was impatiently waiting for his dad to come home, he decided to wander around a little bit. Maybe he'd find a clue to what he was looking for. He liked playing detective sometimes. Everybody told him what a great detective his Grandpa used to be before his hip got hurt.

David walked past his dad's office. He knew he wasn't supposed to be around here. His dad reminded him every time David happened to walk by. But as he looked nervously down the hall, he decided it wouldn't hurt to walk in. So he gently opened the door and walked quietly in.

He felt brave for being in here, his dad's office. He looked around and saw nothing interesting on the wall. Just some awards his father has won for being good at helping people. He decided then to take a peek at the desk. He tiptoed across the room to the big oak desk that sat in a corner of the room. Not surprisingly, it was neat. His dad liked to keep things in order, maybe a little too much. He saw a silver picture frame sitting on the desk. Maybe it held a picture of him and Mom. He went closer to the desk and saw it was a picture of his parents. They looked happy. His mom was in a red dress and it seemed they were dancing or something David made a face. He wasn't into mushy stuff like dancing and girls yet. He looked around the bookshelves at all the books his father has stored up. He wondered if his dad ever really read all these. _There must be a million books in this room_, he thought. Then he noticed something funny was hidden back in the shelf. David went closer to see what it was. It was a kind of a statue-looking thing, maybe of a dragon, like in his old picture books he used to read with his mother. He wondered what in the world his dad was doing with this thing in his office. Just when he was thinking about dragons and dances and his parents, he heard his mother calling him from the hallway.

"David! Your father is home, and we'd like to talk to you."

"Ok, coming, Mom!" David shouted back.

He quickly put the statue back on the shelf and walked out of the office, closing the door behind him. He hoped his dad wouldn't find out he'd been snooping in his office. As curious as he was about the dragon, he knew he couldn't ask about it.

David walked into the living room where his parents were waiting.

"Sit down, David," Niles said.

David sat on the couch between his father and his mother. His mother put her arm around him. She nodded to his father.

"So, you had a few questions you wanted answered, huh?" his father said. He didn't even sound mad or anything.

"Yeah."

"Go ahead and ask them. I will try to answer them the best I can, but your mom and I feel you're a bit too young to know some of the details just yet."

David looked at his parents in disbelief. Was his dad serious? David swallowed some before talking. "I wanna know about you and mom. I was looking in the picture book today, and I saw something that made me curious."

"What did you find?"

"A note you wrote after I was born."

"Ah…yes, I remember that." His father smiled over at his mom.

"How was I born? How did you and Mom first meet and stuff?"

"Well, your last question actually comes first. Let's see…Your mom first came to work for your Uncle Frasier and your Grandpa when they were living together."

David looked surprised. "You mean Uncle Frasier and Grandpa lived together?"

"Yes, for eleven years, before your Uncle Frasier moved away. They never thought they'd get along, being under the same roof. But, somehow, your mom changed all that. She was almost another member of the family, even though we didn't get together for another seven years." Niles smiled and took Daphne's hand. For a moment, the two were caught up in their memories.

"It took seven years for you and Mom to be together? How come?"

"Well…," Niles said hesitantly. He looked over at Daphne, not sure what to say. Niles tried to choose his words carefully. "There were some…circumstances that prevented us from being together."

David grew more curious and felt his hopes slip away at the same time. "What do you mean?"

"For one thing, I was in charge of helping your grandfather get around and get his exercises done." Daphne paused, remembering her years as Martin's physical therapist. Martin wasn't the easiest patient she ever had. He would always try to get out of doing the work, but she still loved him. He was the longest patient she'd ever been with, and David's grandpa. David loved being around him. He was older now, but still spoiling David, just like he promised when David was born. And Ronee was always by his side, no matter what.

"You helped Grandpa? Why? Were you his assistant or something?" David asked, looking confused.

"I was hired by your uncle Frasier to be his therapist when he moved in." Daphne looked over at Niles, not mentioning the part about how it was Niles' idea to hire her, and how he even paid her, long before they got together.

"So you knew Grandpa before you met Dad?"

"Yes."

David looked over at Niles then, and asked, "When did you meet Mom?"

"I remember our first meeting like it was yesterday. She was doing laundry, looking absolutely beautiful. And then Frasier introduced us. I don't know what I was expecting. But I definitely didn't think Dad's new therapist would be as pretty as your mom. It was love at first sight for me."

"Oh, Niles," Daphne muttered, leaning over to kiss her husband.

"Eww, gross! I'm here, remember?" David said.

They immediately broke apart then and smiled at their son.

"So, you met mom at Uncle Frasier's…now, tell me about me being born. But leave out mushy stuff, like that!" David said, referring to the earlier kiss.

Niles and Daphne smiled at each other. David inherited Martin's habit of not wanting to know too much of a story.

"Ok, well…" Niles started. He didn't know how to put it without leaving in all the "mushy" stuff. Daphne touched his arm then and said, "Let me." Niles nodded.

"Anyway, we were getting ready for the wedding of your Grandpa and your Grandma Ronee. Well, Ronee's not _really_ your grandmother. She's a bit too young for that, or at least that's what she says," Daphne laughed.

"So, we were getting ready for the wedding; it was the wedding day actually. And Eddie, bless his dog heart, swallowed the wedding ring! We had to rush right down to the vet's office to get it out, and that's where you were born."

"I was born at the vet's office? Wow…"

"Yes, quite an eventful day. Grandpa and Ronee were married just as soon as you came out. And by Uncle Frasier too. Don't ask how that happened. Long story." Niles said.

"And then Frasier surprised us all with moving to California to accept a job offer." Daphne left out how Frasier made a detour first and followed Charlotte to Chicago. He surprised her there, and she moved out with him to San Francisco and have been happily together since, and have even talked about getting married. Everybody was quite thrilled for them, and it seemed like Frasier had finally found his perfect match. It sure took him long enough.

"So Uncle Frasier moved? What was it like without him?"

Daphne looked over at Niles. She knew it had been tough for him, not having Frasier around. Everyone missed him. But Martin nad Niles put on brave faces. It had gotten easier, but Niles would always miss those times at Café Nervosa he shared with his brother. And after living together for so many years, Martin would never forget his time at Elliot Bay Towers. He'd never admit it out loud, but no matter how much Frasier got on his nerves, Martin really loved him. Niles too. And Daphne was sure they both knew it.

Niles sighed inwardly before answering his son's question. He really did miss Frasier, but having Daphne & David by his side was the best feeling in the world, and it helped him on the days when he really missed Frasier the most. "It hasn't been a picnic, I'll admit it, but being around you and your mom makes everything seem better, and my world is brighter because of it."

Niles and Daphne shared another kiss, with a few more objections from David. "If you guys are going to keep doing this, I'm going back to play in my room! Or go look at that cool dragon again." David said the words before he could stop himself.

The kiss ended abruptly, and Niles looked at his son in surprise. "What are you talking about?"

David looked sheepishly at Niles and told his father the truth. "I was looking around your office before, and I found this really cool dragon statue sitting on your bookshelf."

"David, how many times have we told you not to go in your father's office? You know you're not supposed to go in there alone." Daphne scolded.

"I know, and I'm sorry. I just wanted to play detective, like Grandpa, and look around."

"Well, that's all right, son. Come on, I'll tell you the story of that little dragon."


	3. Chapter 3

They all walked down to Niles' office together. Niles sat in his desk chair, with David and Daphne sitting in the other chairs. Niles picked up the dragon and studied it, remembering how Roz had given it to him for helping her get Alice into an exclusive preschool. That was also the worst time in his life, because he had just watched another man propose to Daphne. He wondered again how much to tell his son about it all. After Roz had given him the dragon, he thought it was the worst gift ever, like some kind of a joke to her. So he just put it away until he moved into the Montana. While he was decorating his apartment, he realized that the dragon would actually fit into his décor. So he chose to put it in his office. He'd never told Roz what he thought about the dragon, or where he'd put it. But it served as a kind of reminder of that time in his life. Daphne told him later that she had a vision about her soulmate having a dragon. Of course, she didn't know about the little figurine then, so she just brushed off the vision as being ridiculous. But it was more the truth than she had realized. Maybe now it was time to finally tell her everything. Niles took a deep breath and got the dragon down from its shelf and poured out his heart. Whether David would understand any of this wasn't necessarily the point here. He was really talking only to Daphne.

"I was going through some of the worst times in my life around the time I got the dragon. You're a little young to understand. But I was close to losing your mommy forever. See, she was going to marry another man."

David interrupted then. "You mean, you wouldn't have been my daddy?"

"Nope, if it all turned out the way it was supposed to, I wouldn't have been your daddy."

David got up and hugged Niles. "I'm glad you're my daddy."

"Me too, buddy. But you should really thank your mom. She made it all possible for us to be here now. And I'm forever grateful." He looked over and smiled at Daphne then.

"Oh Niles, what would I do without you?" Daphne said.

"So…what happened?" David said, on the verge of pleading.

"You think he's ready?" Niles whispered over to his wife.

"We'll soon find out." Daphne whispered back.

"So I was engaged to a man named Donny," Daphne began, and the memories came flooding back, "I had no idea your father was in love with me until Donny had already asked me to marry him. When I found out how your father felt, I began to realize that Donny might not be my forever love. And I started to get some deeper feelings for your father. You see, son, love is a very powerful thing. You should take it seriously and make the right choices. Marriage is forever. Understand?"

David scrunched up his face in a cute way that made both Niles and Daphne laugh. "It's OK if you don't. You're much too young to know about such things. But believe me, when you meet the girl of your dreams, you'll know. I immediately knew when I saw your mom for the first time." Niles said.

Daphne continued with the story. "It was on me wedding day to Donny that everything changed. I escaped from my own wedding to go find your father and proclaim my love for him. After I did that, it was like everything was on our side. Oh, we had some grief and details to work out between the other people we were with, but that didn't matter. We were in love."

Niles and Daphne looked at each other again, and almost kissed, but they didn't because of David. "Everybody was so supportive of us getting together. Well, everybody in our family, that is. Everyone knew that your dad had always had a crush on me, and I was the last one to know about it…" Daphne drifted off a little, remembering all those years of Niles' pining for her. She knew she'd always regret not realizing sooner that he had feelings for her, but that was in the past now. It didn't matter anymore. What mattered was the love that she shared with Niles now, and David too. Suddenly, she was in a hurry to finish this discussion and get David into bed, so she and Niles could have some time to themselves.

"Mom? Are you OK?" David's voice brought her attention back to the present.

"What? Oh, yes, I'm fine, honey. I think we've had enough of this conversation for now. It's almost your bedtime anyway."

Niles knew Daphne probably wanted to get David into bed so they could spend some time to themselves. They hadn't had much of a chance to do that as much as they'd like, what with Niles seeing patients, and Daphne taking David off to school and keeping an eye on Martin. Niles thought that tonight would be the perfect night for showing Daphne how much he loved her and always will.

David made a few complaints about going to bed, but he gave in. "Hey, David," Niles said, as an attempt to get him to comply, "Why don't you take the dragon with you to your room tonight? You can put it on your nightstand and look at it as you go to sleep."

David opened his eyes wide at that and said, "Seriously? Thank you, Daddy!"

"You're welcome. I don't think I need it in here anymore. Now, come on, go get your pajamas on and brush your teeth. Mommy and I will be in in a minute to say goodnight."

"Can I ask one more question?"

Niles sighed. "Ok."

"So did you guys have a happy ending like Cinderella did?"

Niles chuckled. "Why, yes, I guess we did, son." He bent over and hugged David, who was more or less a miniature version of himself. "For better or for worse, we got our fairytale ending."

**The End**


End file.
